--- title: Fans Have Donated More Than $100,000 to Help Mary Ann From 'Gilligan's Island' Pay Her Medical Bills description: A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $100,000 to pay medical bills for Dawn Wells, who starred as Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island." authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z' modified: '2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Crowdfunding - Hollywood word_count: 298 canonical: https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Gilligan's Island](https://img.money.com/2018/09/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme-475013079.jpg) *"Gilligan's Island" cast member Dawn Wells (as Mary Ann Summers), in 1964.* One of the castaways from *Gilligan's Island* is finally being saved — by the Internet. Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann Summers on the iconic 1960s sitcom *Gilligan's Island*, reportedly lost her life savings a decade ago during the financial crisis. According to a new [GoFundMe page](https://www.gofundme.com/help-dawn-wells) started by her friend, Dugg Kirkpatrick, Wells now can't cover her bills stemming from an accident that required her to be hospitalized for two months. "Dawn needs $194,000 to alleviate penalties by the IRS (which are compounded daily) and to pay her hospital costs," the crowdfunding page states. The GoFundMe campaign was launched 10 days ago, and as of midday on Thursday, fans had contributed about $40,000 to help cover Dawn Wells's bill, according to [*People*](https://people.com/tv/gilligans-island-dawn-wells-gofundme/). As word spread across the Internet of the effort to "help a woman who gave so many people joy over the years," as the crowdfunding page put it, the donations have poured in at the end of the week. As of Friday morning, nearly 3,000 people had pledged money to Dawn Wells, mostly with donations ranging from $5 to $25, and the grand total was up over $118,000. On her Facebook page this week, Wells confirmed that the GoFundMe page was legitimate, and said that she was overwhelmed with gratitude for her "dear dear friend" who launched the campaign, and for fans who are coming to her aid. "I thought I was taking all the proper steps to ensure my golden years," Wells, 79, wrote on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/therealmaryann/posts/2556252621055224). "Now, here I am, no family, no husband, no kids and no money. I'm grateful that God has given me so many friends and fans who care, or it would all be too ....overwhelming .....I am grateful to any of my fans who are willing to offer support." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Celebrities", "item": "https://money.com/celebrities/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Fans Have Donated More Than $100,000 to Help Mary Ann From 'Gilligan's Island' Pay Her Medical Bills" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/", "name": "Fans Have Donated More Than $100,000 to Help Mary Ann From 'Gilligan's Island' Pay Her Medical Bills", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Fans Have Donated More Than $100,000 to Help Mary Ann From 'Gilligan's Island' Pay Her Medical Bills", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/09/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme-475013079.jpg", "width": 2373, "height": 2388, "caption": "Gilligan's Island" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z", "description": "A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $100,000 to pay medical bills for Dawn Wells, who starred as Mary Ann from \"Gilligan's Island.\"", "abstract": "A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $100,000 to pay medical bills for Dawn Wells, who starred as Mary Ann from \"Gilligan's Island.\"", "@id": "https://money.com/dawn-wells-mary-ann-gilligans-island-gofundme/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2018-09-07T14:07:18.000Z", "wordCount": 298, "keywords": [ "Crowdfunding", "Hollywood" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Celebrity", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity" ] } ] } ] } ```